The Magic Thread

[Egg Shen]

I vaguely remember us having a magic thread on here before, or maybe im just remembering a discussion within another thread? regardless i can't find it so i thought i'd start a thread.

 

I don't know a lot about magic, but i like it, so im hoping that this thread shines a little light on some stuff i haven't seen before...Post videos, thoughts, share your favorite magicians etc.

 

What actually inspired me to start the thread was the new TV show on Watch, The Happenings. I didn't know what it was other than being told it was a show about 2 guys, Barry & Stuart who try to convince a small town that they're being visited by aliens.

 

 

Turns out, that's what the show was about, but the two guys involved are magicians who've basically taken a Dynamo style magic show and give it a bit of a narrative theme, so all the tricks/illusions are aimed at convincing these people that aliens are invading.

 

It sounds like the kind of thing that people would just laugh at, and whilst you didn't get the impression that people were a little freaked out when they were performing the tricks, i couldn't help but remain sceptical throughout the entire thing.

 

I know it's a trick, but this TV produced magic (like Dynamo) seems to be more about tricking the people at home rather than performing basic tricks to the person in front of them, some of the stuff they were doing is just too far fetched, i don't really see where the trick is other than it being a trick of TV and camera editing?

 

The stuff they do is just impossible, it's not even plausible. I never get the 'how do they do it?' feeling after any of it. It's the same with Dynamo, ive heard a lot of people say 'Dynamo is amazing', but to me he's just a guy working with a talented camera crew and a lot of actors who play along to his heavily edited stunts (based on his TV show).

 

There's going to be 3 more episodes of The Happenings with different themes to the first one...you can watch the first one on catch-up here.

[CTXRussomark]

Dynamo is really frustrating to watch, because for every bit of decent close-up magic/sleight of hand he does there's another five tricks that are clearly camera/production tricks. I eventually just stopped watching him altogether because I had so little faith that anything I was watching was anything other than a scripted TV show. I liken it to if pro wrestling decided to film matches like fight scenes in movies, with multiple cuts and camera tricks to make everything look more realistic. The end result looks the same (or even better) but you take away most of the actual skill involved, which to me defeats the whole purpose.

[Stylin_and_Profilin]

Love this stuff !!

 

I like stuff that is up close and in your face so that you aren't being wooed by fancy pyros or scantly clad women and what you are seeing is right in front of you.

 

For sheer skill and sleight of hand you cannot beat the Chop Cup routine. It's so simple in that it's just a ball and cup yet the amount of skill required to do it convincingly is incredible. To do it at full speed whilst talking to your audience is even more special. For all the times i've seen Paul Daniels and the career he has i still think this is the jewel in his crown and nobody does it better than he does.

 

Video here of Mark James doing it pretty well however if you've seen Daniels' do it then it's about three times as fast and even more complicated; just great to watch.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpxuvS-VSlg

 

My favourite magic is card magic. Again stuff that someone can do to manipulate just a deck of cards using their hands. Incredible. Will post up some of the favourites later.

[Egg Shen]

Dynamo is really frustrating to watch, because for every bit of decent close-up magic/sleight of hand he does there's another five tricks that are clearly camera/production tricks. I eventually just stopped watching him altogether because I had so little faith that anything I was watching was anything other than a scripted TV show. I liken it to if pro wrestling decided to film matches like fight scenes in movies, with multiple cuts and camera tricks to make everything look more realistic. The end result looks the same (or even better) but you take away most of the actual skill involved, which to me defeats the whole purpose.

agreed, i got the same impression watching The Happenings.

 

heads up too, David Blaine has a new TV special coming on around the New Year. i think it's more a street magic type deal rather than one his elaborate stunts.

[Ant]

I love a bit of magic me. I'll probably watch the hundred greatest magic tricks over Christmas for the tenth time.

 

I've seen Derren Brown live 4 or 5 times and will be seeing his "new" show next Summer (some of you may have seen it this year).

 

Seeing Penn and Teller 3/4 years ago in London was delightful. Sadly their 2014 shows clash with my summer holiday.

 

Did anyone see The Illusionists live? I understand one of the shows was taped for TV. Should be worth a watch.

[Chest Rockwell]

As it happens, I've just had this exact argument this morning at work with people about Dynamo.

 

I seem to be in the minority though.

[Astro Hollywood]

Dynamo's shit. The one trick he'll never manage is conjuring up a personality. I saw one of his shows where he took off someone's watch at the beach and moved their tanline, which was incredibly impressive, until I Googled it, and found the trick for sale on magic sites. Literally just a shop-bought trick. That thing where he was hanging off a bus is just this old chestnut.

 

 

He gets away with it because he's got a hoodie and girls think he's sexy and mysterious, but if it's just stuff anyone can buy, or camera tricks and stooges, he's not 1% of the magician Paul Daniels is. Daniels is phenomenally talented, but sadly too old, ugly and unfashionable for modern TV.

[John Matrix]

I can take or leave magic shows on TV, i guess for the reasons talked about above. Even with relatively basic tricks, i'm always sceptical of stooges, editing etc.

 

That said, i was lucky enough a few years back to watch David Copperfield live in Las Vegas and man, when you see some of those larger scale tricks in person, inches away from your face then regardless of what's involved, it's pretty breathtaking. If someone gets up from their seat in the office, my peripheral vision and spider senses kick in, yet that cunt made a Cadillac appear under a blanket right in front of me and i never saw it happen. Madness.

 

Whilst i've not watched much Dynamo as he seems to have the personality of a wet fart, i do feel very similar regarding the Derren Brown stuff in as much as his TV shows these days are so formulaic and conveluted, where as i've been left pretty stunned by the live shows i've seen televised.

[Ant]

I've not seen too much of Dynamo. Is it fair to say he's Britain's version of David Blaine?

[Egg Shen]

yeh, im not a fan of Dynamo's presentation either. His Magician Impossible show is very similar in format to David Blaine's old Street Magic show but Dynamo isn't half the performer Blaine is.

 

Dynamo is clearly a talented magician, but for every trick that impresses me there's 3-4 that make me just shake my head at how stupid it is. I really want to be present when he's performing his street tricks though, i wanna see it in person!

 

One thing that modern TV magicians are doing is messing with mobile phones, Dynamo has done it and the Barry & Stuart did it on the The Happenings as well. The Happenings pulled of a trick where one of them were travelling in a car disguised as taxi driver with 4 girls on night out. Suddenly there was a massive white flash outside the taxi and the car stalls...when they all look at their phones and the clock in the car time has moved forward by like 4 hours, so it gave off the impression that they'd been abducted or something...they all ran back to the pub they were in, which was closed and the streets were dead.

 

Now...how the fuck does that happen? I can see how they could manipulate the pub situation, thought it would take a great deal of planning with streets being closed down and whatnot. But how are we meant to believe that they can alter people's mobile phones without actually touching them? It just annoys me that we are meant to believe that it's really happened. Everyone involved are clearly actors.

[Astro Hollywood]

Now...how the fuck does that happen? I can see how they could manipulate the pub situation, thought it would take a great deal of planning with streets being closed down and whatnot. But how are we meant to believe that they can alter people's mobile phones without actually touching them? It just annoys me that we are meant to believe that it's really happened. Everyone involved are clearly actors.

 

Not forgetting the part where someone was SUCKED INTO THE SKY and found a few yards away, on the ground, with no memory of what had happened, and a video on his phone of it happening, with an alien's face on it.

[Steve Justice]

I've always had a vague interest in magic. Like mostly anything with me it has to be entertaining for me to remain interested. I've only recently started watching Derren Brown and I'll be going to see him in Milton Keynes next April which I'm looking forward to.

 

I've also seen David Copperfield live (although this was at the NIA in Birmingham around 1994. Not quite as glamorous as Vegas). He did his flying trick which was pretty awesome to see live. And the old cutting his assistant in half with a massive circular saw.

[Ant]

yeh, im not a fan of Dynamo's presentation either. His Magician Impossible show is very similar in format to David Blaine's old Street Magic show but Dynamo isn't half the performer Blaine is.

 

Dynamo is clearly a talented magician, but for every trick that impresses me there's 3-4 that make me just shake my head at how stupid it is. I really want to be present when he's performing his street tricks though, i wanna see it in person!

 

One thing that modern TV magicians are doing is messing with mobile phones, Dynamo has done it and the Barry & Stuart did it on the The Happenings as well. The Happenings pulled of a trick where one of them were travelling in a car disguised as taxi driver with 4 girls on night out. Suddenly there was a massive white flash outside the taxi and the car stalls...when they all look at their phones and the clock in the car time has moved forward by like 4 hours, so it gave off the impression that they'd been abducted or something...they all ran back to the pub they were in, which was closed and the streets were dead.

 

Now...how the fuck does that happen? I can see how they could manipulate the pub situation, thought it would take a great deal of planning with streets being closed down and whatnot. But how are we meant to believe that they can alter people's mobile phones without actually touching them? It just annoys me that we are meant to believe that it's really happened. Everyone involved are clearly actors.

 

Hypnosis? Ie the time on the phones was real, the pub was really closed - it's just the girls were "under" for that time period?

[Egg Shen]

Now...how the fuck does that happen? I can see how they could manipulate the pub situation, thought it would take a great deal of planning with streets being closed down and whatnot. But how are we meant to believe that they can alter people's mobile phones without actually touching them? It just annoys me that we are meant to believe that it's really happened. Everyone involved are clearly actors.

 

Not forgetting the part where someone was SUCKED INTO THE SKY and found a few yards away, on the ground, with no memory of what had happened, and a video on his phone of it happening, with an alien's face on it.

...and the guy that could decipher alien voices through a 'sound recording' that nobody else could hear.

 

The more i think about, the more i hated it

[Egg Shen]

yeh, im not a fan of Dynamo's presentation either. His Magician Impossible show is very similar in format to David Blaine's old Street Magic show but Dynamo isn't half the performer Blaine is.

 

Dynamo is clearly a talented magician, but for every trick that impresses me there's 3-4 that make me just shake my head at how stupid it is. I really want to be present when he's performing his street tricks though, i wanna see it in person!

 

One thing that modern TV magicians are doing is messing with mobile phones, Dynamo has done it and the Barry & Stuart did it on the The Happenings as well. The Happenings pulled of a trick where one of them were travelling in a car disguised as taxi driver with 4 girls on night out. Suddenly there was a massive white flash outside the taxi and the car stalls...when they all look at their phones and the clock in the car time has moved forward by like 4 hours, so it gave off the impression that they'd been abducted or something...they all ran back to the pub they were in, which was closed and the streets were dead.

 

Now...how the fuck does that happen? I can see how they could manipulate the pub situation, thought it would take a great deal of planning with streets being closed down and whatnot. But how are we meant to believe that they can alter people's mobile phones without actually touching them? It just annoys me that we are meant to believe that it's really happened. Everyone involved are clearly actors.

 

Hypnosis? Ie the time on the phones was real, the pub was really closed - it's just the girls were "under" for that time period?

they were literally with the 'Taxi Driver' 2 minutes before the time lapse. It was a movie-esque kind of trick but it was so far fetched it was just silly. These shows are the modern day equivalent of the infamous Ghost Watch show in the early 90's.